Sandbox is a business-focused facility at University of Central Lancashire. Using ‘Lego serious play’ they help clients to arrive at solutions to problems. Lego Serious Play is a form of business consultancy where team members work through imaginary scenarios and create 3-dimensional metaphors of their organisational experiences using Lego bricks.

Sandbox’s asked us to devise a campaign that would target senior executives and attract bookings from large corporate companies, looking at organisational change. They were unclear as to how best to do this and their brief to us did not stipulate what channel or media should be used. However they were clear that whatever form their communication took it should be ‘innovative in its approach’.

We devised a three-pronged campaign with an initial direct mailing, a brochure to give to warm prospects and a final follow-up mailshot. The campaign was extremely successful and resulted in numerous bookings and a quantifiable return on investment.

The first element of our campaign was direct mail sent out to CEOs and HR Directors at some of the largest companies in the north-west of England. As this target market is notoriously hard to reach it was important that the mailer had immediate stand-out appeal and could get past the ‘gatekeepers’ .

We ordered 34000 bricks from the Lego website from which we built 500 boxes that reference the very distinctive Sandbox building in the centre of Preston. The box was cellophane wrapped with tear tape and carried a hand written label on the outside. It was delivered by courier to the prospects to increase the chance of it reaching the right person. When the box is opened the top tier of bricks reveals the brackets(‘[ ]’) of the Sandbox logo in green. Within the box is a concertina folded leaflet printed in three special colours on a highly tactile stock. The front of the leaflet bears a stylised graphic of the building which enables the viewer to make the connection between the box they’ve just opened and the building on which it is based.

The box works because it’s eye-catching and unusual – it demands further investigation. The clear cellowrap packaging means it draws attention as soon as it lands on a desk and who can resist the opportunity to play with some Lego?

This element of the campaign was nominated for ‘Best Direct mail’ in the 2008 Roses Design Awards.

Following the direct mail campaign warm prospects were given a brochure which carried more detail about the services on offer at Sandbox.

The brochure needed to have a similar wow factor and production values to the direct mail campaign so we created a brochure which had immediate ‘pick-up’ appeal but also conveyed a sense of confidence and high quality.

The brochure is an unusual size which immediately draws the eye. The cover is a 6 panel PVC wallet. The outer side is made of high gloss black and the inner of soft-touch translucent PVC. The two materials have been welded together to create a highly-tactile and luscious-feeling cover. To further add to the quality feel we have screenprinted the single word ‘Sandbox’ to the front cover. Inside the wallet contains a 24pp brochure and five double-sided case study cards which can be easily updated as new case studies are added to the Sandbox portfolio. The normal binding method for a 24pp brochure would be 2 wire saddle stitch (two staples to the spine). However this brochure is ‘singer sewn’ using a cotton thread which matches the pantone green of the screenprinted cover and text pages of the brochure. This further adds to the overall impression of quality.

The final element of the campaign was a Christmas ‘card’ sent out to all prospects. Of course this was no ordinary Christmas mailer!

As with the direct mail element of the campaign we sourced individual bricks from the lego website and then packaged these in clear bags. The bags were labelled with a festive message and instructions on how to construct a Christmas Tree decoration from the supplied bricks.